The Tunnels
by Avilan
Summary: Five Chaos Space Marines fight to survive in tunnels infested with the enemy. Crappy summary, I know


The Defiler was scaling up the mountain, using its claws to hold on to the steep incline. Firing its autocannon at the Imperial guardsmen manning the fortress walls, it shredded 6 guardsmen who were firing their lasrifles at the following chaos space marines, knowing that their lasrifles would do little against the mechanical behemoth climbing towards them. Reaching the fortress at the top of the mountain, it was rocked by explosions as several missiles slammed into it from some guardsmen who had just returned from getting the missile launchers.

The missiles however, failed to penetrate its armour, merely leaving a number of scratches and scorch marks on its torso. Sweeping its arms around, it struck a number of guardsmen, killing them before it was struck from behind by the company commander. Unleashing a mechanical wail, it slammed its three close-combat arms into the area the commander was in.

Narrowly dodging the claws of the defiler, he was slammed into the ground by its third arm. The arm seemed to be 6 massive flails welded together and covered in a power field. Silently blessing the fact that his force field had saved him from being killed by the defiler, he got up from where he had crashed to assess the situation. It was not going well.

The defiler was wrecking havoc amongst the men, killing dozens with each sweep of its claws. Its autocannon and battlecannon were also wrecking havoc, destroying most of their tanks. What was worse however was, with most of the men was either dead or dying, there was no one to stop the chaos space marines from climbing the mountain with impunity. They were almost upon the fortress, with the last few feet being mined, slowing their progress to crawl as they climbed around mines.

Deciding the fortress lost, he ordered whoever was left alive to retreat through the subterranean tunnels underneath the fortress. As he turned to follow them he was grabbed from behind by the defiler's massive right claw. He was then repeatedly smashed into the ground over and over again until finally his force field gave out, folding into itself. Holding the commander triumphantly over its head, it prepared to smash the commander onto the ground when a missile slammed into it.

As he dropped him, it felt more missiles slamming into its adamantium hull. As the commander hit the ground, he felt himself be peppered with shrapnel from the missiles. Ignoring the minor injuries he had suffered he began to limp back to the soldiers when the first chaos space marines arrived, gunning down the guardsmen. As he looked upon the carnage they were creating, a stray bolt struck a missile, causing a chain reaction which destroyed the rest of the men as well as blowing a sizeable hole into the wall.

Seeing that the traitors were preoccupied with that, the commander sprinted across the courtyard, ignoring the pain in his leg where a piece of shrapnel had imbedded itself inside. Noticing him for the first time, the marines began to fire at him, with his carapace armour taking most of the punishment from the bolts. As the defiler recovered from the missile blasts, he saw it fire its reaper autocannon at him and saw large holes being carved into the rockrete in front of him. As he ran he felt a number of impacts that nearly threw him of his feet as bolts pounded into his back.

While his torso was well armoured, his legs weren't. A bolt struck him in the knee, blowing his leg apart in a shower of gore, throwing him to the ground. As he struggled to stay awake, a massive boot clamped down on his back, pinning him to the ground. Looking up he saw a marine looking down at him from the barrel of his bolter. Whispering to his comrades they apparently came upon a solution. Reaching down, the marine gripped him by his throat and savagely crushed it, killing him instantly. Tossing the body away, the marine walked off to investigate the tunnels that the blast had uncovered.

Before they could get any further, there was a tortured groan as hull of the defiler struggled to contain the daemonic energies contained within the defiler. The energy began to spill forth from the cracks caused by the missiles. As the energy began to pulse the marines had already run to the tunnels, knowing that they could dig their way out if the explosion buried them in the rubble.

Reaching the tunnels, they jumped inside not seeing the portal that had formed there when the hull had first been cracked. The portal was too small to trouble them until the last one. As the other marines landed they saw him being dragged into the portal. He was struggling against the daemonic strength of the beings clawing at his armour, seeking to drag him to his doom. It was a struggle that he could never win, but still he fought, defiant till the end.

As he struggled above them, the rest of the marines, knowing that he was lost focused instead on what were the options available to them. They couldn't return the way they came, that being blocked by the portal which could stay for an indefinite amount of time. They could attempt to contact their superiors but the chances they would bother to aid them were slightly below their chances of winning a beauty contest. Their best chance of survival was to follow these tunnels to wherever they may lead and if it came to an imperial camp, well they would take as many of the imperial dogs with them to the warp.

Agreeing to the course of action, the six of them departed from that spot heading in a southerly direction following the only tunnel that had not collapsed from the explosion. So intent were they on pushing forth that they missed the helmet that fell behind them, the only remainder of their ill-fortuned brother. Something else however did not miss it. Sneaking up silently, it snatched the helmet up for an unknown purpose.


End file.
